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Anyone have a program to solid hatch the face of extruded text in a drawing?

Question asked by Mark Schwandt on Aug 24, 2016
Latest reply on Aug 31, 2016 by Deepak Gupta

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Has anyone written something, or is there an easier way?

We put a lot of labels and tags on our products, and they need to appear on the drawing. Making a decal isn't going to work, because the labels often are dynamically created. We also make drawings showing the individual labels. (the picture attached is just a portion of a page of a label document that may have as many as 10 pages. The labels shown were all created in a design table, each of those is a configuration, and the text is generated dynamically from that table).

I need to show the text filled in, and and was wondering if someone else had similar issues. And before I start something from scratch, I thought I would see if anyone had written something to do something similar, or if there might be an easier way.

Thanks in advance

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S. Casale Aug 24, 2016 4:44 PM
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Are your labels only sketches on the drawing? Or cartoons rather?

If you make a model for the label (which is what I suggest):

Model the label to a thickness desired, create and additional extrusion with all of the data that needs to be filled in. Don't merge the extrusion when accepting it and in the Dislpay manager select the extrusion and color it in.
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- Jeremiah Feist @ S. Casale on Aug 24, 2016 4:51 PM
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  S. Casale, applying color to the feature will work - IF they are willing to live with shaded model views in the drawing file. in the past this sometimes lead to much longer print times. haven't tried it recently
  
  Mark Schwandt, you can select the model faces and apply a solid hatch in the drawing (multiple faces can be selected at a time).
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  - S. Casale @ Jeremiah Feist on Aug 24, 2016 4:57 PM
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    Nice. I didn't want to suggest that because of how long it would take to select each and every face....
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    - Mark Schwandt @ S. Casale on Aug 25, 2016 8:13 AM
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      Scott, unfortunately I do have to select each and every face, and apply solid hatching to it, currently. We can't have shaded views as drawing views. This would alleviate the problem, as the current design table colors the text on the label, and It would simplify things a lot, but again, unfortunately, not an option.
      
      I can write a VB program to do it, and I guess I'm going to have to do that. I was just curious if anyone else out there has similar requirements, and has dealt with it in any other way.
      
      Thanks to all who have responded so far, but I guess I'm off to start coding. If it works well enough, maybe I'll post it back here for others.
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Amen Allah Jlili Aug 24, 2016 5:27 PM
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I like S. Casale's solution, It's possible to write a macro that will achieve that. Mark Schwandt, contact me by PM or (jliliamen@gmail.com) if you're interested in a professional service.
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John Stoltzfus Aug 25, 2016 8:33 AM
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Just a question - Would it be possible to do an offset line/s in the center of the text letters and keep it as a sketch - thicken the line and show that in the drawing or use multiple offsets
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Thomas Voetmann Aug 25, 2016 9:08 AM
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Do you really need the text as solid geometry?
I am thinking you could use your design table to drive a custom property instead, and - in the drawing - use a note linked to the property. This note can have any bold fond you might like.
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- Mark Schwandt @ Thomas Voetmann on Aug 31, 2016 10:56 AM
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  Again, unfortunately, yes. Sometimes we have to render the file, and currently they don't want to use decals to recreate the label.
  
  I know, old and stubborn, but I have to bite my tongue and realize when the water is the deepest, you have to go with the flow. wait until it lessens to try to change it's course. I'll let them figure out eventually what is easiest overall. They just started using SW here 2 years ago. Myself, I've been using it since 1998 and know what works easiest but I'll go with the flow for now. I'll make small patches now and hope for the best.
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Robin Saniewski Aug 31, 2016 12:37 PM
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What I have done in the past was create the blank label, then extrude the text. insert the label onto the drawing and in the side view create a section thru the text the label will now have the text hatched (change to hatch to solid in options settings) the finally hide the side view.
This seems to work fine for one label, Have not tried it for many labels on one sheet (because it would need many sections)
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- Deepak Gupta @ Robin Saniewski on Aug 31, 2016 12:40 PM
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  I would suggest to keep them in library and have the feature locked via freeze bar. Don't use configuration if you're going to use many of those in the assembly/drawing as that may increase the file size or loading time.
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Anyone have a program to solid hatch the face of extruded text in a drawing?

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